Season 2 Episode 21 Many mini-miracles (4-24-17)

Alberto brought US roses, he is so sweet!

Season 2 Episode 21 - Many mini-miracles

MILAGRO - acontecimientos extraordinarios causados por el poder 

de Dios...

(MIRACLE - extraordinary events caused by the power of God)

This week was full of a lot of little things and some really good reflection time... 

For starters this week when we visited Alberto he gave us some roses.

Then we were able to meet this new lady named Teresa who was a saving grace on a rainy day. We were able to talk with her and even her son who is 7 listened to us. Then a little miracle happened was when he asked us a bunch of funny questions like - Are you from outer space? Do you speak Japanese? Do you know about God? It was a great and hilarious experience for us both.

The Not so CLEAN bunny

We visited a less active member and her daughter who is 7 she is wanting to get baptized here soon. So while we were at their house they showed us that they have a bunny and it was the cutest little guy who also was a little gross - it is an animal from Uruguay... (enough said) We also had the chance to go see Loana and her family she made this delicious bread roll type thing that she is going to teach us how to make so I am excited about that. For those of you who know me really well you know how much I love bread so this was a great miracle. We also visited two investigators and they showed us their wedding pics from 1960s, it was a sweet opportunity for us to get to know them a little more. We visited our friend Neder and she was so happy to see us because we had not visited her in a long time.  We also saw Roxana and Mimo, we were able to share a couple of Mormon Messages.  We felt the spirit really strongly while in their house. We ended the week with a Relief Society social and a Young Women activity, so Saturday we were really excited to be able to see and 

RS & YW Activity

be with the entire ward and help them all grow closer together. 

Hilarious Hermanas... We are keeping a "tripping tally" to see which one of us falls more because its getting a little intense on how often we "trip." We are also being reminded every hour that another hour has past because Heywood's watch now beeps every hour on the hour.. lol (we have NO idea why it has started doing this) it is helping us keep time in a very creative way.. 

This weeks BIG miracle - it was raining real hard towards the end of the night and we were still one investigator short to meeting our contact goal so we decided to walk a little ways away to go and visit someone that was a reference from the Bishop. It was the best decision we have made. We got to her house and were not expecting her to be home, however after knocking (clapping) three times she let us in her house. We were able to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was truly great lesson. Then we were finishing and she asks us "Why did you come here today?" we looked at each other and told her that we had planned on going to visit her that day when we planned earlier that morning. But didn't make it.  She looked at us in awe, then explained that about a half an hour she had prayed to know if she should keep on this path and what she needed to do in her life. Then we showed up at her door. She told us that we are were the answer! THAT IS A MIRACLE!  She is going to come to church and put in her all to follow Gods direction for her.  Needless to say as a Missionary that was a great experience for us to feel that we are really doing what God needs us to be doing here in Bella Union. 

Me with the "Carpincho"

Desafio (Challenge) So some weeks we have big miracles, like for us last week we had Alberto get baptized.  However, this week we only had some contacts and not a lot of "number success", but it is not the numbers or the investigators or the baptisms that matter. We were able to see Gods hand in our lives in so many little ways this week. It rained, we took a little pit stop. It rained again and we got to see Katarine. We were walking all day and some of the other little things happened to make us smile. The point here is that every single day there is a miracle, and if you cant see one LOOK HARDER!! God loves us, we are his children and he is showing us everyday how much he cares about us. So this week make note of all the mini-miracles in your life. I promise that as you do your attitude will improve and that the hard stuff wont seem as bad.

It's P-Day (What are those Elders doing?)

I love you all and hope that you have a great week..

Love , Hermana Cassidy Sanovich 

Thoughts from Hermana Heywood (4-17-17)

These Thoughts are from Hermana Heywood on the Baptism of Alberto
(I hope she doesn't mind)

The baptism of Alberto was INCREDIBLE. Not many people showed up but you could feel the Spirit SO STRONGLY! Alberto had to change A LOT in his life, and I mean A LOT! 

I can´t even begin to describe the changes he has made in his life to be where he is now. 

He smoked.

He drunk.

He had his many "women".

He had a potty mouth.

But he changed. 

He found Christ and wanted to follow Him.

He gave up ALL these worldly things that don't bring us happiness. 

As he entered the water and came back out I could see the relief, peace, 

happiness that he had. 

He was CLEAN.

 Just casually talking to Hermana Leyva via Skype

I could only think to our Savior, 

Jesus Christ in this very moment.  

He was CLEAN. 

He was PERFECT.

He loved us so MUCH that He suffered for us.

All of us.

He suffered so that we don´t have to.

Through our Savior, Jesus Christ we can CHANGE. 

And that is EXACTLY what Alberto did. 

He changed for HIM. 

He changed to come closer to Christ. 

I hope you were all able to really think about Christ this weekend. He has done SO much for us and will do SO much more for us EVERYDAY. 

We have to accept Him...

His hands are reached out to you...

Grab them, take them, let Him carry you home.

I have the STRONGEST testimony that He lives! He loves us! He wants us to come home to Him. He wants us to change, change for the better.

So, go find something you can change so that you can become just a little bit more like Christ. 

A little more like our Savior, Redeemer, our Older Brother. I know for certainty that you will find more and more peace and HAPPINESS in your life. 

Love,

Hermana Heywood

Season 2 Episode 20 " Baptisms, Birthdays and Bears.. OH MY!!" (4-17-17)

Season 2 Episode 20 " Baptisms, Birthdays and Bears.. OH MY!!"

So this week was crazy, and it felt insanely long... A bunch of just random little things have happened and the best way to tell you about it is a list of 20 things that happened the week I turned 20... SOOOOO here we go,

1. We have some new neighbors and they have started to play music in English.... Lucky for US.

The Birthday Girl "20"

2. Roxanna fell asleep while we were waiting to eat lunch with her

3.  Alberto told us that we were not allowed to help him clean up outside because we are busy looking for the children of God. 

4.  The river got flooded so much that the buses were not going to Artigas. So we were literally on our own private island...

5.  We contacted the sweetest older gentleman and he just thanked us for talking to him. He told us that he was going to live his life so that he could be with his wife in Heaven again, there were tears shed.

6.  I have seriously started to trip at least three or four times a day, which also included stepping in dog poop Sunday morning but, not realizing it until around Sunday school... go dog poop! 

7.  We got hardcore rejected... This lady told us "I'd prefer if you just kept on your way and did not come back."  The funny part about this is that we have taught her parents before and even went back this week and at that time all was good. 
(was she having a bad day? we are not sure!)

The CAR RIDEEEEEEE

8.  All of the creepy guys that live in Bella Unión have started talking to us and telling us that they are going to come to church, we think it is related to the fact that we wear skirts again.

9.  We went on a car ride to visit a less active member and the entire time it just reminded me of the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, the car was old and the dirt roads are really bad.

10.  Uruguayan churches will never be clean... Well nothing is really that clean here... But we try our BEST... 

11.  I watched my lovely companion fall down the stairs into the Baptismal font that we were cleaning... She said that it was part of my Birthday present, thanks.

Birthday Present from Heywood 

12.  We ate pizza and some brownies from a package from the USA and they were delicious. #thanksHeywood

13.  We learned that in order to fill up a font it takes about 4 hours and it will only be about room temperature, because hot water does not come out of the taps in the church.

14.  We met some cool Uruguayan people that invited us to tell them all about being Missionaries. GO US!

15.  We were able to explain that Easter is the same because we all believe in Christ. 

16.  We visited Yesica and her puppy decided to attack me this time, but it was a great lesson and discussion so it was worth it. 

Alberto's Baptism was Incredible

17.  ALBERTO GOT BAPTIZED!!! it was an awesome and really spiritual experience to be able to watch him take that big step.

18.  For my Birthday Alberto bought me a stuffed teddy bear that says I Love you... I might have teared up and just wanted to hug him because it was just so sweet .

19.  SALTO is the best zone ever = I got quite a few happy Birthday phone calls, then we were able to celebrate on Sunday with a cake that the Hermana's made for me. Then we even had more cake Monday as a Zone. 

20.  EASTER...We were able to have a little egg hunt as Hermana's in their house Sunday night. But we all know that the holiday is about way more important things than candy and eggs. It is so different here but the spirit of it all is the same!!!

So all in all it has been a Great Week, and we were able to see a bunch of Miracles. 

Picture of the Carpincho - Critter

The challenge this week is to watch at least a little bit of the Devotionals that the General Authorities are going to have this week. However, I am not sure if that is just a thing that they are broadcasting to the Missionaries so the challenge is to watch a Conference talk that you missed or one that calls out to you. I love that we have the chance to watch and re watch time and time again all of the modern day revelation we are receiving.

With all that is going on this time of year and all of the focus we have put on Christ this week I just want to let you all know that I know without a doubt that Christ lives and that he is our Savior and that he is a part of each and every one of our lives...He loves ALL OF US and he is willing to help us if we will reach out to him.

I hope you had a "HOPPY" Easter and that you are able to always remember Christ even without the chocolate eggs and bunnies.. 

Love you, Hermana Sanovich

Season 2 Episode 19 "Soaking Wet in Salto" (4-14-17)

Season 2 Episode 19 "Soaking Wet in Salto"

H´Sepúlveda said we looked like Tela-Tubbies

So this weekend we were able to come back to Salto for another three day weekend!! WAHOO!! We are having a bunch of fun in our little quartet, and we were even able to do some cool things this week before we came here.

We will just start out with our little Hilarious Hermanas moment from this week - So we got home Monday night around 8:30 as usual and we bought some ice cream to eat on the way home. AND we noticed that we did not have the keys. Long story short we got to break into our own house... So we climbed the gate and then climbed in through the window. We spent the next day leaving and coming into our house this way. It was a great adventure that we are trying really hard not to repeat. We did get new keys and luckily we did just before the gas in the house went out, we had to stop cooking our lunch and have a gas guy come drop off a tank of gas. I'm just happy that we were able to let him in the front door and not the window. (that would have been funny to see)

BRASIL con Elder Gómez y Huanca

In other news this week we were able to find the Carpincho 

(our little animal friend) again and this time there are pictures!!! 

***she did not send us any pics this week of this critter hopefully next week*** I was just as excited as before and this time we have proof. Some people told us that they thought we were from Australia so that was cool to hear for once. We then contacted this cute little 93 year old lady who started to cry when we gave her a little card. Hermana Heywood told a lady that she was from England and I started to laugh just a little, our goal this week is to be from different countries, I'm going to be from Russia.. We contacted two little boys when they asked for a Book Of Mormon we were amazed and it was one of the coolest little contacts ever. When we left them we went to Roxana and Mimos house and they gave us a little box of chocolates to start celebrating Easter. We also taught this girl Marisol and she was so sweet, we were really able to show her how much God loves her because her family situation is not great. The best thing that happened was ALBERTO passed his interview!! (he is going to be baptized on Friday, my Birthday yea) So we went to Brazil with Elder Gómez and Elder Huanca for lunch and then we all got on a bus and came back to Salto. 

SALTO ----- We had an amazing conference with President on Saturday morning where we talked a lot about having a good and loving companionship as well as being able to work with more than the other missionaries here in Salto. It was such a great experience!!!  It started off by being a major down pour!! It's just the beginning of the Rainy season here... Saturday night I was with Hermana Harker and she is super awesome. We laughed at a couple of things that happened during the night some of which are 1.  The power went out in their house 2.  I almost ran into a barbed wire fence with my face 3.  We had two little girls follow us 4.  We went to their house to teach them and it was totally the "Home Alone" house... So this house was crazy!!! We talked with about 7 people who didn't live there and in the end we just told them we would come back later this week.. "Does anyone even live here?"   Then on Sunday we were able to have Stake Conference and it was all about not giving any type of excuses. It was exactly what they needed to hear and what I needed to hear too. Then on Sunday afternoon I was able to go and be a companion with Hermana Sepulveda and we got even more soaking wet than I thought was possible. However, we had a bunch of fun and we all were together... 

Hyrum & Joseph

DESAFIO/CHALLENGE - This week we talked about Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It has been something that President Olsen has been challenging us to focus on. We are all trying to have a companionship like they had. So me and Hermana Heywood have decided that I am Joseph and that she is Hyrum... We may or may not call each other that throughout the day and President mentioned that we are a little too much like them. It has been a great motivation for us to work together and be a team. So my challenge for you is to read more about Joseph and Hyrum Smith and then to apply the way that they love and serve one another into some aspect of your daily life.. 

I love you all and hope that you have a great Easter weekend!!!

Sea. 2 Ep. 18 "Have you seen the Americans or the Carpincho?" (4-3-17)

Season 2 Episode 18 "Have you seen the Americans or the Carpincho?"

Weekend with the Hermanas

So this week has been crazy! There has been some contacting, some good lessons, and then our adventures at our vacation house!! ALERT: email format change from Hermana Sanovich

Starting out with our adventures contacting this week.... 

So we went out to contact and find some more people and we found a really good street so we decided to talk to everyone. So we knocked on the door and then this dog comes around the corner to say hello. Then I hear Hermana Heywood say "The dog only has one eye!" And then I looked and we felt sad for the poor thing until she says "He needs a pirate eye patch." Then we laughed hysterically in front of the poor dog. In the end the lady was really nice and we are going to go back and visit her soon. A different day we had someone respond to the question "Why are you here on Earth?" with the response of "Because I haven't died yet"... WELL yes sir, but there is more than that, we talked for a minute and then when he realized we were Mormons he told us to go away. It was a good teaching opportunity at least. Also there was a group of American students visiting here in Salto that we were trying really hard to find but, we never found them. But everyone else who live on this street asked about them...

Uruguayan Animals 

1. We got to see a carpincho.. That was a highlight of the week for sure!! They are these little animals that only live here in Uruguay and it just casually strolled by us while we were contacting one day. I might have been overly excited and so now it is the ongoing joke in the zone. BUT it was really cute and just so random that it made my day.

2. I got kind of attacked by a dog today. We were waiting for a bus and the dog just jumps up on my lap and it just starts pushing me until I almost fell into a ditch...well, at least I didn't fall into the ditch - mom

Nothing better than French Toast,
Oranges, and General Conference with our favorite Hermanas

Our lessons - We went back to the house of Yesica, with the dog and the kid and YES they were at it again. However, this time the Dad had pushed the kid into the dog so that it would bite him and guess what? IT DID! Needless to say I had had enough of the animal abuse so I started to freak out just a tad about it. Well my little freak out turned into me "talking loudly" in English about how I would take the dog home with us if I could and that I was sorry for the poor thing... Once that was over we were able to teach them about how important their own desires are and how much they need to put in their own effort because we cant do it for them. It only took a small freak out to be able to finally get through to Walter just a little bit...maybe just maybe they realized that we need to be kind to all!

Home away from home

Vacation HOUSE - So on Friday night we got to travel to spend the weekend with the Hermanas in Salto!! It has been a really really fun weekend here with them. On Friday Heywood and I hit our 10 months in the mission so the four of us decided to celebrate with some pizza!! Then on Saturday we were able to eat some lunch and then to watch some General Conference and then go back to the Hermanas house and just laugh about the day. Then on Sunday we got up and made some french toast, and it was fun to have our own little Conference party before we went to the Stake Center to watch it. We also began to practice our musical number for our Zone Conference that is coming up... 

The Gringo Room!!!

Gringo Room - So for Conference we were able to all get together and the Americans went into a different room in the church to watch the conference in English and it was AWESOME!! I love the Spanish language don't get me wrong. However, being able to hear their own voices is incredible. We also enjoyed the little clip about the Mormon Tabernacle singing for Trump and we all started to do our best impression of the Star Spangled Banner, it wasn't the best but we were all enjoying it. Also, for the last song we were all excited to be able to sing in English that we joined in.. Which leads me to a question that we had. Why were there not the words for us to sing with them this time? If anyone knows the answer it would help us out... 

However, speaking of General Conference and of some the musical numbers, this leads me to the 

Challenge for this week: So we were singing along with the lovely Mormon Tabernacle during Conference and then when it was over we started to practice our own song for the upcoming zone conference. To say the least our zone is no Mormon Tabernacle Choir... Nor do we have a lot of musical talent. HOWEVER as we heard this weekend from Elder Holland "All God's critters got a place in the choir" He went on to explain that we are all invited to be part of the choir and to sing, it doesn't even matter how horrible our voices are we are still invited to be a part of the choir! Now in our zone some Elders were not wanting to participate at all and there were a few that were willing even though they were not the strongest singers. Those that put in their whole effort, with the help of some direction and practice, together now  WE have a good musical number. Now applying this to our own lives... we are all invited to be a part of the choir and as Elder Holland said "there is a place for everyone all that wish to be there." Just like a struggling Elder trying to learn his part in a choir we all need the help of a director that sees our potential. We all have access to this direction and he has already given us all the keys to success.. So the invitation is to be a part of the choir, to do everything that he has taught us to lead us to happiness and eternal life. Now we may sing a little differently but when we work together the end result is beautiful.. 

I love you all and hope that you got the chance to listen and watch some conference. I wish you all the best this week... 

Love Hermana Sanovich 

Season 2 Episode 17 " Houston I think we have.... GRIPE!!!" (3-27-2017)

Season 2 Episode 17 " Houston I think we have.... GRIPE!!!"

So this week we actually had something that we call gripe. It is basically the same as the flu, so nothing really huge but it was a little adventure for us... So because we were sick we were in our beds all day Wednesday and Thursday, and for the first half of Friday. However, there were a couple of things that did happen that were funny. 

So as usual we were able to have an adventure with Alberto. This time he decided to come to the door in just a towel wrapped around his waist. However it was a special towel considering that it had a Lion and a bunch of jungle animals on it... We just looked at each other and laughed and then I said a little prayer that he would put more clothes on before he sat down and we started a lesson. Luckily he did and it was a good chat but we started out laughing our guts out... 

We also got to visit our friends Yesica and Walter, as well as their crazy kids. Their son is about 7 and is crazy, he has so much energy and just runs around all the time. However, this time it got a little intense because he had a knife. So he was running around and then he was throwing this knife at the ground. It didn't really bother us until he grabs their puppy and puts the knife up to his throat.. Needless to say I LOST IT!! Then the family starts laughing and they all start telling me its not real and to prove it they start pushing it against their fingers... It was quite the experience to start out a lesson, and it also happened to be Tuesday afternoon when we were starting to get just a little sick so it was great. 

We went from their house to the Ward Council and the Bishop always says this saying and I love it "Thank you for all that you do and for all that you don't do because it saves me a lot of work." Just a little encouragement from Bishop Molina... 

We have "Gripe" (flu) YES WE DO!!!

Once we had recovered from our FLU/GRIPE we went out and contacted a bunch of new people. There were not a lot that were ACTUAL PEOPLE. (hahahha) So needless to say we will be visiting that area again! However, there was this one lady who told me that she knew me. Then she says "I've seen you before somewhere I AM sure of it" When I explained that I had not been in this area for very long and that I had never been to that part of town she told me that she was sure "that I was famous and that she saw me on TV or something like that..."  We are not sure what will happen with her but it was a little sign that we needed to be doing what we were and contacting at her house, now we just have to convince her that I'm not famous... lol

Birthday brownies for Heywood's Birthday
 Happy 20th - with Loana y su familia!

In all the sickness and craziness I almost forgot that this week was Hermana Heywood's Birthday on Tuesday right before we got sick. We were able to party a little bit with a family and they made brownies, well we started to make brownies and then they ran out of gas so we went searching for a neighbor that had some gas we could use to cook the brownies and pizza. We ended up finding her Grandma in the end we did actually get some Birthday pizza and brownies. Happy 20 BIRTHDAY Heywood!!!! 

This week we were also able to start off the Conference time of year!!! We listened and watched the women's conference on Saturday and we were even able to do so in English!!! This leads me into the.... 

     CHALLENGE for the week, Conference is this weekend (in case you have forgotten) so you know what that means. WATCH IT!! It is a simple challenge, it takes a little bit of time but it is also online and you can watch it wherever you are going to be and when you have time. Isn't technology cool? The most important part is that you WATCH IT because, I know that we are going to receive a bunch of direction that we all need to keep moving forward that will come through the words of the Prophet and Apostles.. 

I love you all and hope that this week will be a great way to SPRING into April!! 

Con Amor (With Love) - Hermana Cassidy Sanovich

Season 2 Episode 16 " The wheels on the Bus go round and round" (3-19-17)

Season 2 Episode 16 " The wheels on the Bus go round and round"

"DA CREW"

So this week we were able to travel A TON!! It was crazy and overall we logged about 36 hours in different buses. It was a great way to spend the week but by Sunday morning we were absolutely exhausted. Our first trip was to Montevideo and the other was to Paysandu and then as usual to Salto for the Monday meetings... 

Cheers to being out 9 months

BRASIL con Elder Higly y Elder Villsanti

Trip to Montevideo - So we left on Tuesday night and got there super early Wednesday morning. It was a little challenging to get any sleep on a bus but it was well worth the 9 hour bus ride because everyone from our group in the mission was there. We were all united and we got to get our Uruguayan cedulas, which basically means that we are all legal Uruguay citizens and we have cool licenses to prove it. One of the best parts of this little adventure was that we all ate some Burger King Brunch, what else are you gonna do when you have 10 Americans chilling in a terminal. The funniest thing was that we were all sitting there and this Elder goes " We have been in URUGUAY for about nine months now, so I say we raise our Burger King glasses in a toast" That's when we all started to laugh really really hard. Then we all had to go on our buses and go to our own areas, which was all good until we had to change buses in Salto. We had been in the terminal eating some dinner when we realized that Heywood did not have her wallet. So we just started to panic a little and in the end we had to go to the storage warehouse luckily we found her wallet...all good... 

LAS HERMANAS DE PAYSANDÚ 

The calm day - Thursday we were at home so it was a little more calm than the other days. However, we had a couple of funny things happen, for starters we got to teach Alberto and he gave us the advice to marry someone in the church that does not drink or smoke because he wants us to be happy. It was kind of random but it was awesome to hear him being so positive... When we went out in the afternoon we taught Yesica and that was a really good lesson because her kids were just chilling and we talked with her about her personal progression. It was going great until we looked up and saw her son BITING the dog!! He grabbed the dog with his teeth by the back of its neck and had it in his mouth... It was gross and sad and the poor puppy was in pain... From one crazy house to a FUN crazy house, we went to have a family night with Zully Trouche and her kids. It was so much fun and we were able to share with them how important sharing the Gospel is.... AND we ate some of her empanadas and they are DELICIOUS!!! 

 Zully Trouche - Yummy Empanadas

Trip to Paysandu - We went and visited my old friends in Paysandu!! It was a fantastic trip and I was able to teach with Hermana Hunsaker, we were able to find two new investigators for them to teach so that was awesome. Then I was able to visit Guadalupe and her mom which was fantastic because they are having a hard time right now, it was fun to be able to lighten their spirits a little. Then I visited Ricardo and his family, they are doing as good as ever and Ricardo is working on his mission papers so that is really cool too... All in all a great trip and it was fun to be the 5 of us together... 

Hilarious Hermanas - So when we got back home from Paysandu we had a little surprise. The door would not open with our key, and this was about at 2 am... So we talked to our landlord and she couldn't help us. Then we went and tried to get in from the back but it didn't work either. SO we went to the police and they came and opened our door for us. They could not get the key to work either and were going to break our door down, but it ended up working just the one time to get in and then after that it was not working at all... We laughed but we really just wanted to go in and sleep.... 

What???? We are wearing SWEATERS????? It's Fall here!

Super Saturday - We went to Brazil with the Elders for lunch because they came for Alberto's interview. Then we had a RS activity and it was by far the coolest activity ever. We all came together to celebrate 175 years of the RS and we were ready to have a nice dinner but the presidency had something else in mind. We all split into groups and went and visited some of the less active sisters that were not able to come to the activity. It was awesome to see them want to help each other and to hear and share about their experiences when we all got back to the church... 

We love our RS Activities 

Desafio (Challenge) This week the challenge is to take some responsibility. I had the chance to talk about this today in District Meeting. We are all 100 responsible for everything that happens in our lives. Granted there are some circumstances out of our control but how we react is 100% on us... So take some responsibility - if that means a new perspective, changing you attitude about something, doing something that you have been putting off, helping someone else in need. Take life by the horns here people, it only happens once. I hope you all get to make the most out of this week and I wish you all the best. 

Have fun and know que les amo mucho!!! 

(I LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH)

Hermana Cassidy Sanovich